A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 'The November Nine'

By Rebecca McAdam and Card Player Writers

"The November Nine" spoke to Card Player in the aftermath of qualifying for the World Series of Poker main-event final table. From day one to the final nine, these men have witnessed an abundance of poker heartbreak and some miraculous streaks of luck. They describe their experiences of those five tough days on the battleground, and remain hopeful for the biggest one yet to come.

Craig Marquis - USA: 6,000,000 in chips

Day 1 was actually pretty good. I ended up, I believe, with about 60,000 in chips, which, when you start with 20,000, isn't too bad. Day 1 was actually a pretty soft field, but I had a couple of players at my table who were decent. All the days after day 1 are kinda blurry. I remember days 4, 5, and 6, and 7, obviously, but days 1 and 2 are like blurs, so I'm not really sure exactly who was at my table or whom I played with.

Going into day 4, I had 147,000 in chips, which wasn't very much at all. I think I was pretty far below average, maybe about half-average, or so. So, pretty much every day I went into the tournament, I went in with the goal of making the next day. I was like, "Cool, I made day 3, I'm pretty happy about that. It would be pretty sweet to make day 4." I didn't really concern myself with thinking about winning the tournament when it was still only day 2, day 3, day 4, or whatever. I took it one day at a time. I didn't think on day 4 that I was really going to last very long, because I didn't have very many chips, but I ended up doing all right.

From 27 to 9 players was a really fun time. I started the day second in chips, so that was great; I was really happy with that. But I didn't really pick up that many hands early on, and my table - the way my seating was set up - wasn't that great to get a bunch of chips. "Chino" Rheem got moved to my left when we got down to 18, and literally when we were breaking tables, I told the dealer that the only thing I didn't want was Chino to my left, because he likes to play a lot of pots, and he's hard to play out of position against, and he's a pretty decent player, and that was the only thing I didn't want when we got down to 18 players. And then we redrew, and Chino sat down to my left, and I was like ... really? It was kind of irritating.

It ended up getting a lot tighter when we got below 18 players, all the way down to like 12 or 11. There were some people who were just not playing very many pots at all. So, I was trying to take advantage of that, and pick up more chips than I had.

Unfortunately, anybody who made the final table seems like they have a clue as to what's going on. There really aren't any bad players at the table, surprisingly enough. Chino's good, Scott Montgomery is good. They are all really good players. Ivan's good, Peter's good. They are all pretty solid players. Dennis Phillips is the only player I haven't really played any poker with, so he's the only one I don't really know about yet, but everyone seems like they're pretty decent.

David "Chino" Rheem - USA: 10,880,000

Day 1 started off great, as I got off to a good chip lead right away. A couple of people gave me gifts, when I had the nuts and they just shipped it to me. I ended day 1 with over 100,000 in chips, so day 1 was awesome. Day 1 was probably the easiest day out of all the days I played. Day 5, we started with only 27 people, and all we had to do was get rid of two tables to get to the final nine, and it just took forever. At one point, I was in good position to make the final table, and the way I play tournament poker sometimes, I get out of line, and I played a couple of pots where I was definitely out of line, and it cost me a lot of chips. But I didn't give up and I managed to get my chips back. It was just a long, crucial day, and if I didn't have my friends with me there to support me and to tell me to chill out, I don't think I would have made it.

I played a couple of pots when I shouldn't have really been in the pot. I should have folded preflop, but instead, I had that little brain cramp and decided to try to outplay somebody and just pick up the pot. So, I gave away a lot of chips, over like two and a half million in one hand, and two million in another hand. I know better than to play these hands and I do it anyway, so I can only get mad at myself. But when you do it, you're totally upset and blown, because you have such a good chip position, and I didn't truly appreciate what my stack was worth. So, those hands, I got frustrated over.

Sometimes I know where I'm at in the hand, and I get stupid. Like, there was one hand I played where the board happened to be J-10-6-6 with two diamonds, and I had a flush draw, but I got raised, and I knew right away that I was supposed to throw it away. I already knew I was supposed to throw it away, but I just gave away two and a half million chips in the hand before, and instead of throwing it away, I called the raise, when already drawing dead. I don't like paying people off a lot, and when I'm faced with a river bet and forced to make a decision, I'm pretty good at knowing if I have the best hand or not. Sometimes I'll still pay it off when I'm wrong, but I'm pretty good at knowing when I'm beat or not. So, I think that's a good aspect of my game, that I can survive and not pay people off.

I mean, this is all surreal; this all happened yesterday, so I'm still taking everything in. The next three months - I hope it's just gonna be chilled, I just want to relax. I don't really wanna think too much about the final table, because I think if I do think too much about it, it's going to get in my head too much. I honestly feel like I'm the best player at that table, that I can definitely win the tournament. During this whole main event, I've had a clear head; everything that my friends told me to do, I've done - you know, like, I never partied or drank, or anything like that. I just played and went to bed. So, for these three months, I don't really want to be in party mode; I want to try to have a Zen calm type of mode, so that I can just go back to the final table and do what I gotta do.

Dennis Phillips - USA: 26,420,000

Actually, the way I got into the main event was through a satellite tournament in St. Louis at the Harrah's Casino - $200 buy-in, 100 people - and I won it.

Day 1 of the main event was actually rather uneventful. I slowly built up a little bit of a stack, and didn't have any major hands. Day three was the turnaround. I got all the way down to 20,000 with only about three hours left of that day, and kind of went nuts. I started getting superaggressive. I pulled it up to almost 300,000 before the end of that day, and I never stopped from then on.

There were about three different times when the play really got slow and people got super-tight. When we were getting to the bubble for the money, we did the hand-for-hand deal, and nobody would play a hand. I mean, it was almost ridiculous. People were folding monster hands, trying to stay in. Play slowed down, and we spent a couple of hours trying to get five people out. It was not interesting, let's put it that way.

I was lucky enough to play with several known celebrities, which was nice. The first day I sat down, I was with Jeff Madsen - a great guy. I got autographs from a lot of the major people out there; every one of them was cooperative and nice, and considering the massive number of people there, they didn't have to be. The camaraderie, the friendship, everything was just really neat. It was an experience. It was great, I loved it.

I'm a commercial account manager at Broadway Truck Centers in St. Louis; that is what I do for a living. I will continue to do that. I enjoy the job, I have a lot of friends there, and I have clients I've worked with for years and years. I do not have to deal with the general public. I deal with a select group of clients, and it's nice. So, I will go back there and continue to do that, but we'll see what the future brings.

Entering the final table with a chip advantage will help; it can't hurt, that's for sure. I'm in a position where I could take a hit and still be competitive. There are a few stacks that if they take a hit early, they're in trouble. I'm not in that position. So, there's a definite advantage to that. I don't have a big enough chip stack that I can play power poker yet. Hopefully, I'll get to that position, where I can shift gears. We'll see what happens, but I'm in a very comfortable position; I'm happy with it. The final table will be interesting. I've got eight competitors who are all good players, and I have them ranked one through eight. I'm not gonna tell you how they're ranked, but they play a little bit different and I think I've got a fairly good read on them.

Unfortunately, they probably have a fairly good read on me. We played for quite a while with the group of us there. Most of the people at the final table were at my table at one time or another in the last three tables. I think we know each other fairly well; we respect each other, and it's gonna be interesting play.

I'm a big old man. These guys ain't gonna have gray hair for 20 years. And I'm really having fun. These guys - a lot of them do it for a living - they're young, they're nervous. I'm out there having fun, and if I finish ninth, I'm not gonna be upset. I'll dance a jig all the way to the door. I'm gonna be relaxed, I am gonna have fun, and beware, because I'll throw the dang chips in anytime I want!

Ivan Demidov - Russia: 23,920,000

On day 1 of the main event, it was horrible for me. I was down to 6,000 in chips twice, and at the dinner break, I had maybe 11,000. I was really low. But at the end of the day, things just went my way. I got aces versus kings, so I doubled up. Then, another guy just shoved all in with K-10 and I had A-K, so I got free money. I ended the day with 37,000, or something like that.

You know, the main event probably has the easiest field out of all the tournaments because everyone wants to play it - a lot of satellite players who don't really have a lot of experience. Obviously, it is easier to play against bad players. Sometimes when you don't get good cards or you can't hit a flop, a lot of good players - you can bluff them, and play without cards. You can probably survive without cards, but you can't double up or grow in chips, and that's what you need in the main event.

Around the money bubble, I was playing really aggressively. I had the biggest stack at my table. So, I took around 50 percent of the pots, just by being aggressive, and everyone was afraid to play with me. When we were down to 27 players, I think I played my worst game - from 27 to nine - because I was tired from playing so much, and the stakes were too high for me, so probably I was playing too tight, and not playing my normal game. But, also, I had a lot of really crazy players at my table, so maybe playing tight was the right way. I just played tight, and bluffed a bit, but not much, nothing crazy, and kept my stack around average.

I got really lucky when there were 11 players left. I moved all in with nines and I got called by tens, so I should have lost, but that's poker.

My plans for the next three months? I'm not sure yet. I'm going to play a lot of live poker, because I haven't had that much live experience. The tournaments I played in December and at the Series were my only live experiences. So, I'm going to play a lot of live poker, and take a vacation for a week or so, just to relax.

Kelly Kim - USA: 2,900,000

Day 1 was pretty good. I won a key pot early, which wasn't a huge pot, but it was the middle of the first level, the difference of having 26,000 or 14,000, and I made a flush on the river after I had turned top pair. I made a pretty big bet and the lady folded. So, that put me at 26,000 and I never got below 20,000 after that. I finished the day with 57,000.

When I walked into the Amazon Room, I thought it was pretty overwhelming. I didn't play that many preliminary events. I had family obligations, so I played like two events; the whole World Series atmosphere is very intense. I'm amazed at the quality of the play, and I'm amazed I even considered not playing, because I've seen huge mistakes every day, not only at my table, but at tables right by me. These guys are playing huge pots with marginal hands, and they're just dumping chips.

On day 3, I got as low as 35,000, but somehow I chipped up to 100,000 by the dinner break, and then I played my first all-in pot of the night to get me to 240,000 in like the fifth level. I had two jacks against A-K. I smooth-called a raise, and some Internet kid who plays pretty solid reraised big, and I thought about pitching it, but after I studied, I sensed he was really nervous. I immediately put him on A-K, so I flat-called and the flop came J-10-7. I checked, he bet big, and I moved in for like 48,000 more and he called. Sure enough, he had A-K.

Day 5 was very strenuous, because I started the day with 670,000 or 650,000, and I got as low as 300,000, so again I was down to like 15 big blinds. I chipped up to 800,000; this was actually a two-sequence pot that got me to 1.7 million, and from there, I cruised. The blinds were 12,000 and 24,000, and I raised to like 60,000 with the Q J on the button. The small blind called and the flop came A-10-X. He checked, I bet like 60,000, and he called. The turn was a queen, he checked, I bet 100,000, and he called. The river came up blank, and we both checked. The way I played the hand is that I wanted to represent strength by my small bets, and I wanted to get a free show-down for 100,000 by betting the turn. So, that put me at exactly 800,000, and the very next hand was probably the most intense hand of the tournament.

Everyone folded to me again, I opened for 65,000 with A-J offsuit, and the small blind reraised to 200,000 straight. The whole day, I was playing really tight because of my chip stack. He had a lot of chips, like 2.5 million, and I knew that he was going to have a big range of hands, and most likely thought he was going to win with a walk. I studied, and thought about moving in, but I had to be 100 percent sure that he would fold or that I had the best hand. I wasn't too sure, so I decided to see a flop in position, and it came J-4-2 all hearts. I don't have the A, or it would be real easy. He open-pushed for 2 million, and I took like five minutes. I mean, it's really hard; this is the most important moment of my tournament, and there's like 70 or 80 players left. I called, and he had A-10 with the 10, and my hand held up.

But when we finally got to the final-table bubble, that was one of the most stressful times for me, because the worst spot to bust out in this tournament is 10th. I mean, just because the whole difference between 10th and ninth is huge in money and endorsements and everything else. That time was the most stressful because I had the most pressure. I was the shortest stack, like half the stack of everyone else's, and everyone was looking at me, because they wanted to see when I was going to make a mistake. Amazingly, though, I made it, and the rest is a freeroll.

Scott Montgomery - Canada: 19,300,000

It's the 13th tournament I've played so far this year, so it wasn't too much of a surprise when I sat down and didn't recognise anybody at the table until an hour later, when one of the announcers came over and announced, "Well, here is Bobby Baldwin," and I was like, "Oh, I've been playing with Bobby Baldwin for the last hour and didn't recognise him." Then, halfway through the day, Barry Greenstein sat down at the table, and that was fun. They were pretty much the only two famous people I met during the tournament.

It hadn't gone very well up until the dinner break. I was down to about 15,000 or so, and then I went on a crazy rush. I got all in with A-K against Bobby Baldwin's kings, and spiked an ace, so I doubled up. And then I went crazy for the last couple of hours, and ended the day at 98,000. Around the money bubble, I had been doing pretty well and finished day two at about 250,000. So, then I thought, "OK, I can just kinda coast into the money. I'm not going to slow down, because I'm still gonna play aggressive." But unfortunately, just before the money, I lost a big pot with queens against aces and it knocked me down to about 100,000. And then at that point, if I played a pot, I play so aggressively that there was a good chance I was going to be all in. When we were 10 people away from the money, even though I hated to do it, I just folded for the next 20 hands or so and made the money.

Most people think that once you make the money, you go a little crazy, but I'm thinking everyone else at the table is gonna be going crazy, so that's the time for me to tighten up. I'm waiting for premium hands because I know every premium hand I get is gonna be all in against some short stack. So, I waited for the good hands because I knew that's all I needed to do, as there were tons of short stacks just waiting to get all their money in with anything. I doubled up right at the end, so I ended the day at 160,000. It was still a little below average, but not too bad going into day 4.

Starting the last day, I had over 4 million in chips, just below the average, so I wasn't feeling too bad. I knew I had to build up chips. I wasn't gonna try to squeak into the final table or anything like that. I knew that if I was going to the final table, I wanted at least 15 million, which was the average, because I needed the big stack to play my aggressive style. So, at the beginning of the day, I made a really, really bad bluff. I bluffed all in with just ace high on the flop, and a guy called me with top pair and then he turned the flush draw, so I had just two outs on the river. I caught the ace to stay alive. So, that put me up to 10 million. I was pretty card dead for the next couple of hours. I had to make a bunch of bluffs just to stay even. And then, finally, on the very last hand, when we were 11-handed, somebody had been knocked out on the other table, and on that exact hand, I almost doubled up against the chip leader. I won like 8 million in one pot against Dennis [Phillips]. So, that put me at 21 million with the final 10 players remaining.

There was a couple of short stacks, and I wasn't gonna play super-tight, but just avoid the big stacks and avoid the big pots, try to steal the blinds now and then, and stay fairly even, because there was such a massive difference between 10th and ninth. I'm not going to fold every hand, but I'm not going to get involved in a huge pot unless I have the pure nuts, because that would just be insane - with a million dollars in real money the difference between 10th and ninth.

I haven't had too much time to think about what the next three months are going to be like, but I plan on keeping my life the same, just travelling around and playing the tournaments. I'm not going to go into hiding or anything like that, or do anything crazy. I mean, the money really isn't going to change me, and the fame or whatever comes with it, I hope isn't going to change me any. So, I'm just going to keep playing poker and having fun. I enjoy poker and I enjoy my life, so why change it?

Ylon Schwartz - USA: 13,040,000

I spent a lot of time hanging around people gambling for a lot of years, and I played chess on the street for a long time, so by just hanging around people, I got to know what their trends are.

On day 1, I had a great table; everybody was overbetting insane amounts of money, and it was great to sit there and wait for a good spot to have my opponents dominated, and that happened a few times. I made some money on day 1.

I picked up a pair of aces when someone just open-shoved, and then somebody four-bet me when I had aces. So, that was a couple of times when I chipped up big. Throughout the early and middle sections of the tournament, I was just kind of small-balling it and trying to keep the pots as little as I could.

I got tight, and I just chilled out. I had a very deep stack, and I started folding hands like K-Q, Q-J, and A-10, because it wasn't playing like a multitable tournament anymore. It was kind of like a supersatellite, where you just have to blend in and get to the final nine. I've played tons of supersatellites, so I felt like I would definitely make it in. I thought that "Chino" played really well, kinda loose, but he's dangerous. And the Russian guy at the table was very strong. He was a rock, and he made moves, and his timing was spot on. I think he's probably the toughest guy left. And the short-stack guy, he plays really well, and he's gonna grind that stack and not give it away, and if he gets chips, he's gonna be dangerous.

I expect that the next months of my life will be pretty chaotic. I wanna chill out, but I know that this is a big moment, and I'm gonna have to be out there, trying to get as much cheese as I can, because five years down the line, I might not have this opportunity again. And then I can go kick it in the Caribbean with some tequila and a hammock.

Peter Eastgate - Denmark: 18,375,000

Peter Eastgate had no problem putting up the $10,000 buy-in to get into the main event, and as a reward for his play, he will leave the Rio in November an instant millionaire. Eastgate will be the youngest player at the table at the age of 22, and he has a chance to break Phil Hellmuth's record for being the youngest player to win the main event.

Despite his age, Eastgate is no stranger to live-tournament poker. On his poker résumé is a final-table finish in the 2007 Irish Poker Open, as well as another cash in the European Poker Tour Scandinavian Open.

Eastgate, a cash-game player, voiced his opinion on whether tournaments are tougher than cash games. "Cash games are far more complex, and the decisions you face in a tournament are much easier. Good cash-game players should have no problem making the transition to tournaments."

Eastgate, from Odense, Denmark, is one of two non-North Americans left in the field. If he is successful in winning the tournament, he will surpass Gus Hansen as Denmark's leading money winner.

Darus Suharto - Canada: 12,520,000

As the second player from Ontario, 53-year-old Darus Suharto is a bit less experienced than his Canadian counterpart, Scott Montgomery. Suharto heads to the final table in sixth chip position and will have some breathing room for a while, but his tight, conservative approach will need to adapt to a final table that features several young, aggressive opponents.

Suharto won his way into the tournament via satellite. He has one other cash to his credit, finishing in the 400s in the 2006 main event. An admitted recreational player, Suharto is an accountant, and he earned his MBA from Indiana University.

The final table of the World Series of Poker may be filled with an unconventional mix of unfamiliar faces, but they are just as determined as those who have gone before. The countdown is on to the ultimate battle. They can play, prepare, study, and relax all they want, but nothing can determine how the cards will fall, as lady luck can choose only one man to shower her affections upon on the day. With everything to fight for, Nov. 9 is set to bear witness to a poker explosion of epic proportions.